A father who was convicted of raping his daughter over a thirty-year period was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Suva High Court this morning (14.12.18), making it the first life imprisonment sentence for a rape case in Fiji.

The father was convicted of 7 representative counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault in October by the Suva High Court.

He had raped his daughter who fell pregnant and then also raped her daughter (his granddaughter) when she was 10 years old.

The incidents happened over a thirty-year period from 1982 to 2013 and involved more than 400 sexual assaults on his daughter.

The State had called an expert witness, the Director of the Human Rights in Trauma Mental Health Programme and a Clinical Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Dr Daryn Reicherter, in this case to give expert evidence on the mental health consequences of sexual violence and rape on children.

In his evidence, Dr Reicherter remarked that this case was one of the worst he had ever seen and said both victims, in this case, had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and showed severe anxiety symptoms as well as chronic suicidal thoughts and behaviour.

He said that people who are raped by their fathers and grandfathers have severe traumatic reactions that are chronic throughout their lives.

The court sentenced the man to life imprisonment.